The Measurement of Ambiguity for Thematic Cards

Students' ability to validate the results from their own psychological tests was examined in two experiments. In Experiment I, sophomore, senior, and graduate students were presented with their actual and inverted profiles from the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) and the Students were asked to select their actual profiles. The senior and graduate students could reliably select their own profiles while the sophomore students could not. In Experiment 2, sophomore students were presented with their actual and inverted profiles from the CPI and the Differential Aptitudes Test (DAT) and the students were asked to select their actual profiles. The students were able to reliably select their actual profiles for both tests.     

Intragroup or Intergroup Attitude Projection Can Increase Opinion Certainty: Is There Classism at College?1

Two processes were examined by which estimation of the attitude positions of others can increase opinion certainty. In Study 1, sophomore and senior students exhibited greater conviction about their own opinions following an opportunity to estimate the attitudes of in‐group members compared to persons who did not receive this opportunity. In an out‐group projection condition, as expected, reduced attitude similarity to freshman students augmented the opinion certainty of sophomores only. In this condition, sophomore opinion certainty was predicted by their perceived status similarity to the freshman out‐group. In Study 2, the relationships between intergroup status similarity, projected intergroup attitudes, and increments in opinion certainty were reexamined and replicated. These findings are discussed in accord with the motivational and cognitive factors that account for the interface between group dynamics and attitude strength.     

大学生心理压力感基本特点的调查研究

本研究采用自编的大学生心理压力感问卷对全国 1 3所大学共 2 0 0 7名大学生的心理压力感状况进行了调查研究。结果表明 :(1 )在大学生群体中心理压力感的主要来源依次有学业压力、学校环境压力、情绪压力、择业压力和人际压力 ,大都是社会环境方面的原因 ;(2 )从大学生心理压力感的年级发展趋势看 ,二、三年级的大学生在各方面的压力感均高于一、四年级 ;(3 )女生在择业和学业压力感方面高于男生 ,男生在家庭、恋爱、身体健康、适应和挫折方面的压力感高于女生 ;(4)来自乡村的大学生在家庭、择业和学校环境方面的压力感高于来自城市的大学生 ;(5)在家庭、择业、学校环境和学业压力感方面非独生子女高于独生子女     

Parental Indulgence: Profiles and Relations to College Students’ Emotional and Behavioral Problems

Research on indulgent parenting and its relation to college students is both limited and inconsistent. Further, all the studies have used a variable-centered approach. To fill the gap in the current literature, the aims of this study were to explore profiles of parental indulgence and their associations with college students’ emotional and behavioral problems. The sample in this study consisted of college students from two universities. Participants were asked to take an online survey about their perceptions of their parents’ indulgent parenting practice and their own well-being. Results from latent profile analyses suggested distinct profiles of parental indulgence for mothers and fathers. Further, these profiles demonstrated differential associations with college students’ anxiety and depressive symptoms, emotional dysregulation, and alcohol use. Implications were also noted.     

Possible barnum effect in the five factor model: do respondents accept random neo personality inventory-revised scores as their actual trait profile?

This study investigated a possible Barnum effect in personality traits, i.e., that persons accept a false trait profile as correct. Having answered the Norwegian translation of the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised, a group of 75 students, 56 (five women military aviation cadets and 19 (10 women) graduate students, received a random T-score profile and were asked to rate their agreement on a 7-point scale. For all personality traits, i.e., facets and domains measured by the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised, positive correlations ranging from .08 to .64 were found between the agreement ratings and the similarity between the random false scores and the actual scores. The respondents identified and rejected random T scores that deviated far from their actual scores, which works against the Barnum effect. Correct identification correlated negatively with Neuroticism r = -.41) and positively (r = .53) with Conscientiousness.     

Selecting analogous problems: Similarity versus inclusiveness

Students were asked to select one of two analogous problems in order to solve algebra word problems. In Experiment 1, one problem was less inclusive and the other was more inclusive than a test problem. The students judged the complexity and similarity of problems, selected analogous problems, and used the solutions to solve test problems. They performed significantly better on the test problems when given the more inclusive solutions, but used perceived similarity rather than inclusiveness to select analogous problems. The same pattern of results occurred in Experiment 2, in which isomorphic problems replaced the more inclusive problems. The results show that students are deficient in selecting good analogies, both from the same category (Experiment 1) and from a different category (Experiment 2). Students who saw the analogous solutions (Experiment 3) or were majoring in mathematics (Experiment 4) were more likely to select an isomorphic problem over a less inclusive problem, but were not more likely to select a more inclusive over a less inclusive problem.     

研究生对导师负面评价的恐惧与师徒文化内隐观的关系

本研究旨在探索“怕导师”现象的文化原因,从师徒关系内隐观分析“怕导师”的影响因素。采用问卷调查和启动实验的研究方法,结果表明：（1）“怕导师”现象是存在的,即研究生害怕来自导师的负面评价。相比女性导师,研究生更害怕男性导师;导师的职称会影响研究生的害怕程度,当导师是教授时,研究生更为害怕。（2）研究生的师徒关系内隐观与其负面评价恐惧有关,越具有“学从师教”观念的人越害怕来自导师的负面评价。（3）“学从师教”文化观的启动会影响研究生对导师负面评价的恐惧程度。     

ACQUISITION,MAINTENANCE, AND TRANSFER OF A QUESTIONING STRATEGY IN SECOND- AND THIRD-GRADE STUDENTS TO LEARN FROM SCIENCE TEXTBOOKS

Acquisition, maintenance, and transfer of a questioning strategy was examined in second- and third-grade students (N = 16) using a multiple-baseline design. Students were taught to identify text structures (comparison-contrast, cause-effect, and problem-solution) during the first week of instruction, and then they were taught to ask questions appropriate to each structure during the second week of instruction. Results indicated that knowledge of text structure increased and that students could reliably differentiate text structure. The mean proportion of correct questions students asked to guide reading ranged from .93 to .96. Increases in literal and inferential comprehension were observed. Students deployed the strategy on their own in the classroom.     

大学生心理压力应对方式特点的研究

本研究采用自编的大学生压力应对方式闯卷,考察了全国各地2007名大学生心理压力应对方式的特点。结果表明：(1)大学生压力应对方式问卷具有良好的内容效度和预测能力,内部一致性和测量稳定性理想;(2)大学生的压力应对方式总体上以心理调节机制为主,自我防御和外部疏导机制使用较少;(3)在压力的应对方式上,大一学生以外部求助、压抑、幻想和调整情绪方式为主,大二、大三学生以自我防御方式和总结经验为主,大四学生则较多采用心理调节机制的方式;(4)女生的应对方式比男生更积极,农村来源的大学生倾向于压抑自己和总结经验,城市来源的学生更喜欢宣泄压力,独生子女的应对方式以消极防御机制居多。     

智力水平与人格类型特征对高中生学业负担态度形成的影响

以829名高中生为对象,对“瑞文标准推理测验”、“加利福尼亚人格调查表”和“中学生学业负担态度量表”的测试数据进行聚类分析和F检验,探讨学生智力水平与人格类型特征对其学业负担态度形成的影响。结果显示,不同智力水平学生对待学业负担的态度无显著差异,但积极进取型学生与固执冲动型及消极退缩型学生间的差异显著。积极进取的人格类型特征有助于形成学生对待学业负担的积极态度,而消极人格类型特征导致学生对待学业负担更为消极的态度。     

Encouraging Intellectual Growth: Senior College Student Profiles

Researchers and educational writers provide many views on what characteristics and skills the college graduate should possess (P. D. Gardner, 1998). Given the rapidly changing nature of knowledge in all disciplines and the subjectivity of grading systems, we argue the best indicator of a successful college education is a student's ability to think complexly about difficult problems. In this paper we examine students' levels of intellectual development to inform our understanding of how college experiences affect students' abilities to think in complex ways about difficult problems. Using both qualitative and quantitative research techniques, we examine and compare the experiences of 19 senior college students who were rated at opposite ends of the Perry scheme of intellectual development. The 19 students were purposefully selected to represent the high and low ends of the Perry scale from an overall sample of 27 senior students at a large eastern university. Ten students from the original sample of 27 demonstrated the most advanced cognitive development with Perry scale ratings of 5–7. Nine students had Perry ratings below 4; this was the lowest rating represented in the sample. We examine the similarities and differences between these two sets of students' academic profiles, and their comments about their curricular experiences, and how the Perry scale reflects on these results. We then discuss how these similarities and differences relate to students' development of the desirable characteristics of a college graduate, implications for faculty and administrators, and the relationship of these results to prior studies using the Perry scheme.     

CONTINGENCY CONTRACTING WITH DELINQUENTS: EFFECTS OF A BRIEF TRAINING MANUAL ON STAFF CONTRACT NEGOTIATION AND WRITING SKILLS

A brief training manual was developed for the purpose of teaching child-care workers to contingency contract with delinquent youths living in residential care facilities. The manual was designed to require minimal supplementary training by a professional. In Experiment 1 a multiple baseline design was used to assess the effect of the manual on 4 child-care workers' contract negotiation and writing behaviors. Experiment 2 consisted of four A-B systematic replications. Behaviors were assessed within the context of analogue training simulations and generalization tests with delinquent youths. Results from the analogue simulations indicated that the manual was successful in increasing both types of behaviors to a level of proficiency that equaled or surpassed that of behaviorally trained graduate students, and results from the generalization tests indicated that the child-care workers were able to apply their newly acquired contracting skills with delinquent youths. Procedural reliability varied across child-care workers, but was usually high.     

The influence of motor expertise and motor experience on action and actor recognition

Two experiments examined whether different levels of motor and visual experience influence action perception and whether this effect depends on the type of perceptual task. Within an action recognition task (Experiment 1), professional basketball players and novice college students were asked to identify basketball dribbles from point-light displays. Results showed faster reaction times and greater accuracy in experts, but no advantage when observing either own or teammates’ actions compared with unknown expert players. Within an actor recognition task (Experiment 2), the same expert players were asked to identify the model actors. Results showed poor discrimination between teammates and players from another team, but a more accurate assignment of own actions to the own team. When asked to name the actor, experts recognised themselves slightly better than teammates. Results support the hypothesis that motor experience influences action recognition. They also show that the influence of motor experience on the perception of own actions depends on the type of perceptual task.     

On the process of recognizing inverted words: Does it rely only on orientation-invariant cues?

Following a demonstration by Parks (1983) of failure to notice the reflection of a letter of an inverted word, two experiments were conducted to test a hypothesis about the process of recognizing inverted words that is termed here invariant cues only (ICO)-a letter-by-letter identification process based only on orientation-invariant letter features. In Experiment 1, subjects were presented with whole strings-words and nonwords, either upright or inverted-in which either all the letters were normal or one of the letters was reflected, and they were asked to make lexical decisions. In Experiment 2, subjects made a reflection judgment about an upright or inverted letter within a string immediately after they had been presented with the other, nonreflected string letters, again either upright or inverted. The results do not support the ICO hypothesis: Lexical decisions were greatly affected by the reflection of a letter in upright and inverted stimuli alike. Reflection judgments were considerably facilitated by word context in the upright and the inverted modes alike. The results are accommodated better by the notion that recognition of disoriented words requires some correction used to restore orientation-sensitive features.     

The influence of divided attention on holistic face perception.

There is evidence that upright, but not inverted, faces are encoded holistically. The holistic coding of faces was examined in four experiments by manipulating the attention allocated to target faces. In Experiment 1, participants in a divided attention condition were asked to match two upright flanker faces while encoding a centrally presented upright target face. Although holistic coding was evident in the full attention conditions, dividing attention disrupted holistic coding of target faces. In Experiment 2, we found that while matching upright flanker faces disrupted holistic coding, matching inverted flanker faces did not. Experiment 3 demonstrated that the differential effects of flanker orientation were not due to participants taking longer to match upright, than inverted, flanker faces. In Experiment 4, we found that matching fractured faces had an intermediate effect to that of matching upright and inverted flankers, on the holistic coding of the target faces. The findings emphasize the differences in processing of upright, fractured and inverted faces and suggest that there are limitations in the number of faces that can be holistically coded in a brief time.     

Intermittent stimulation of binocular disparatecolors and central color fusion

Two experiments were conducted to determine the relationships between the various parameters of intermittent stimulation and the occurrence of binocular color fusion. Numerous combinations of on and off durations were presented, some synchronously and some asynchronously. Three Os were asked to report all colors experienced during the 15-sec viewing period. Experiment ] showed that fusion can be reliably obtained with on durations of less than 100 msec in combination with off durations of more than 100 msec. Experiment 2 indicated that the limit of dichoptic onset asynchrony within which color fusion reliably occurs is 25 msec. Two possible alternative hypotheses consistent with the data are discussed.     

Test-enhanced learning in the classroom: long-term improvements from quizzing

Three experiments examined whether quizzing promotes learning and retention of material from a social studies course with sixth grade students from a suburban middle school. The material used in the experiments was the course material students were to learn and some of the dependent measures were the actual tests on which students received grades. In within-subject designs, students received three low-stakes multiple-choice quizzes in Experiments 1 and 2 and performance on quizzed items was compared to that on items that were presented twice (Experiment 2) or items that were not presented on the initial quizzes (Experiments 1 and 2). We found that students' performance on both chapter exams and semester exams improved following quizzing relative to either not being quizzed or relative to the twice-presented items. In Experiment 3, students were given one multiple-choice quiz in class and encouraged to quiz themselves outside of class using a Web-based system. The assessment in this experiment was a short answer test in which students had to produce answers, but we also used multiple-choice tests. Once again, we found that quizzing of material produced a positive effect on chapter and semester exams. These results show the robustness of retrieval practice via testing as a learning mechanism in a classroom setting using the subject matter of the course and (in most cases) the tests on which students received grades as the dependent measures. Our results add to a growing body of evidence that retrieval practice in the classroom can boost academic performance.     

Hypermnesia: The role of multiple retrieval cues

We demonstrate that encoding multiple cues enhances hypermnesia. College students were presented with 36 (Experiment 1) or 60 (Experiments 2 and 3) sets of words and were asked to encode the sets under single- or multiple-cue conditions. In the single-cue conditions, each set consisted of a cue and a target. In the multiple-cue conditions, each set consisted of three cues and a target. Following the presentation of the word sets, the participants received either three cued recall tests (Experiments 1 and 2) or three free recall tests (Experiment 3). With this manipulation, we observed greater hypermnesia in the multiple-cue conditions than in the single-cue conditions. Furthermore, the greater hypermnesic recall resulted from increased reminiscence rather than reduced intertest forgetting. The present findings support the hypothesis that the availability of multiple retrieval cues plays an important role in hypermnesia.